


A Day In

by elesseto



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Christmas plans go awry, Lavi is capable of jinxing all things, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 10:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9066973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elesseto/pseuds/elesseto
Summary: Lavi has great plans for spending Christmas day with his boyfriend. Too bad for him.





	

This year, they’d decided that they would not give presents to one another. They were basically broke, and the apartment was way too small for more junk in it. So Lavi did the next best thing, which he knew Kanda would hate on principal but would, likely, hopefully, please-please-please-let-it-be-true, actually enjoy.

“Everything is closed on Christmas.”

“No, everything is closed on Christmas morning. We are doing all the things in the afternoon!”

Kanda glared at Lavi .”Let’s stay in.”

“No! You are going to go out with me on Christmas day and you are going to have a good time if it kills me.”

It occurred to Lavi at some point later that a different choice of words may have been wise.

 

xxx

 

Kanda had been up for an hour by the time Lavi crawled out of bed, put coffee in the coffee pot, and stood by the kitchen counter as the water percolated and rich, fragrant coffee emerged. Lavi spent the time holding on to the counter, feeling woozy and uncomfortably hot. Kanda has showered and watered the plants that dotted every spare corner of the apartment before it occurred to Lavi that it was Christmas morning and his rabbit energy was not around. He felt, in a word, awful.

It was when he collapsed, dizzy, on the sofa and spilled lukewarm coffee all over the rug that Kanda, cursing, pulled Lavi back into bed, threw a blanket over the quilt, and went to get the thermometer from the bathroom.

“One hundred and one degrees,” Kanda announced dryly. Lavi groaned.

“Noooo,” he murmured. “This is so not fair.”

“Stop it,” Kanda said, coming to his feet. “Are you thirsty?”

“No.”

Kanda shook his head, fetched a glass of water, and left for a few minutes to clean up the room as best he could in that moment.

Lavi stared at the ceiling, his heart sinking in his chest.

“I had such good plans,” he murmured to no one, feeling miserable and dizzy all over again. “Now I’m going to die before we can do anything fun on Christmas. Yu? Yu, where are you, I’m dying.”

Kanda came back in a few minutes later, carrying his computer with him and plopping it on the bed, before laying down next to Lavi and turning it on. “You are not dying, you dumb rabbit.”

“What are you doing?” Lavi muttered miserably. “Are you filming my death for posterity?”

“Spending Christmas with you, like you wanted,” Kanda replied grumpily. “Though not if you keep this ‘dying’ crap up.”

“You’ll get sick,” Lavi muttered.

“I just downed some Dayquil. I’ll be fine.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Yu.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“It still doesn’t work like that.”

“Would you shut up? You’ll make yourself sicker if you keep yapping.”

Lavi watched Kanda input their usual streaming site and enter ‘Christmas movies’ in the search bar. “So what are we watching?”

 

xxx

 

“Peter and the Wolf was inspired!”

“Would you please shut up?”

“Aw, Yu—you actually said please.”

“Rabbit, I’ve got one rule during movies—so shut up.”

Cold cups of tea sat on Kanda’s bedside table and torn cough drop wrappers littered the bedspread immediately around Lavi. Kanda was eating a bowl of mixed nuts with one hand, while his other arm was draped over Lavi’s shoulder, the laptop perched carefully between them.

“But you have to admit that Peter and the Wolf was a brilliant choice for the music,” Lavi began.

Kanda chucked a pillow at Lavi’s head.

“Don’t abuse the sick!”

“Act more sick, then.”

 

xxx

 

“Let me help.”

“Get out of the kitchen, you’re getting germs everywhere.”

“Pleeeee—”

“Out!”

 

xxx

 

“That’ll be $20.16.”

Kanda passed over the cash and a three-dollar tip, shutting the door on the delivery boy’s cold look as he did so. Kanda went into the kitchen to set everything down and spooned rice, General Tso’s chicken, and barbeque pork into two bowls. The smell of smoke still lingered, even though they’d left the window open an hour.

“None of this would have happened if you’d let me help.”

“Shut. Up.”

 

xxx

 

“Really?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Nothing, I’m just…” Lavi watched Kanda fiddle with the stream loading on the computer screen, refreshing the page several times until the stream started to load. “I’m surprised, that’s all.”

Kanda shook his head before getting up, going to the kitchen for booze and more mixed nuts. He fetched Lavi the box of Godiva chocolate Allen had sent them, moving over the heavy herb index Lenalee had given him and a five-volume set of Middle Eastern histories she had gifted Lavi to get to the chocolates.

Once he was settled back in on the bed, Kanda’s arm went across Lavi’s shoulders, as was custom, and Lavi unwrapped his first truffle.

The music started playing, and a black-and-white painted card came up on the screen: “Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Lavi opened his mouth to say something, but Kanda turned and just looked at him. Lavi took the hint and reached for another truffle.

They had reached the part where George Bailey had just realized that his wish had come true—he’d never been born, and the world was a colder, lonelier place for it. James Stewart’s wide-eyed madness panned across the screen as he looked about his fictional home town, devoid of its brightness and belief; and Lavi couldn’t take it anymore.

“I could you see liking this part of the movie, but the rest of it?”

“Be quiet, this is the best part.”

“The despair?”

But Kanda said nothing. They watched George Bailey find his little brother’s grave, then watched him hunt down Clarence the angel and demand he fix everything. They watched as Clarence say he couldn’t fix it. They watched George Bailey despair and rage until he was back at the bridge where he’d prepared to jump. They watched him weep and pray, and the silence in their bedroom was complete as the movie fell quiet: that moment of suspense before the snow started to fall again, and all became right with the world.

It was only when the credits rolled that Lavi, at last, broke his peace.

“It’s a good movie.” His voice was soft, not wanting to ruin the peace that had settled over his boyfriend.

Kanda’s expression was soft as he replied, “Yeah.”

The question, however, could not go unasked. Lavi let the credit music play a few moments longer. “Why is it your favorite?”

Kanda shrugged, sitting up and stretching. The soft look vanished as he returned to the customary grouch. “Why not,” he replied dully.

“No, no, nooo,” Lavi said, sitting up with an effort. The world spun for a moment, but he fixed his one good eye on Kanda, trying to look dignified amongst the used Kleenex and cough drop wrappers. Kanda was staring at Lavi with that infuriating, unreadable expression he put on when he didn’t want to talk about something. But Lavi wouldn’t back down this time, and grabbed Kanda’s hand in case he tried to get away. “Come on, there’s a reason it’s your favorite. You don’t like most movies to begin with. You never like ones that have happy endings.”

Kanda didn’t bother denying that. “I just do,” he replied unhelpfully.

Lavi looked down at their entwined hands, and he reached with the other to trace the back of Kanda’s hand. “Come on,” he said, meeting Kanda’s eyes earnestly. “Please? Tell me?”

Kanda looked away first. He didn’t pull his hand away, which Lavi took to be a good sign.

“Come on, I’m grossly sick and you don’t feel at least a little sympathy?”

Kanda threw him a dirty look. Lavi sighed. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop.”

Kanda was quiet for another moment. “I like that everything goes to shit for a while before it gets better. And…I don’t know,” he finished lamely, trying to pull away.

Lavi sighed. “Yu.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“We’ve been dating long enough that I’ve earned the right to call you Yu.”

Kanda sighed. “Don’t.” But he didn’t try to pull away again, and Lavi appreciated the fact that Kanda chose to stay.

Kanda shrugged. “I don’t know. I like it. People can’t control everything that happens to them and sometimes it really sucks. But if you do what you can and don’t let the bad shit that happens and the shit people win, then life might be okay. That’s what I like about it.”

Lavi pondered that. “But he does give up, at one point. Like, that’s the whole conflict—when he gives up.”

“Yeah, and see how that turned out,” Kanda muttered. It was another long moment before he continued, “It made everything worse, and it got a lot worse before he figured out he was the only one who could fix it—no one else could figure it out for him. I…I get that. That’s all.”

Lavi stared at Kanda, unsure for a moment what to say. He squeezed Kanda’s hand, then reached over and kissed him on the cheek.

Kanda’s expression softened before he pulled away, and said simply, “It’s your turn to pick the movie.”

“Merry Christmas to you, you jerk.”

The corners of Kanda’s mouth lifted and his eyes softened. “You too, rabbit.”

**Author's Note:**

> i posted 2015's, so here is my dgm secret santa for 2016. hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.


End file.
